Athlete News: Major Update in Jameis Winston Rape Case

When you try to get someone on sexual assault charges, or rape, you have to get a ton of evidence to use against them. The person accused will claim it was consensual, and accuser has the job of proving it was not with the help of the law. It seems that the Tallahassee D.A has been attempting to gather information he could use, if he chose to, against Winston. In an update in the case, Winston’s DNA was found on the clothing of the accuser. This happened to be body fluids, which I’m sure you can figure out on your own.

They are sure it is his, as there is only a trillionth of a chance it is not. That helps the case against Winston far more than the former case brought up, such as calling the accused between 5’9-5’11 (Winston being 6’4). But, sexual actions will make fluids come out. Therefore, the law would have to prove that Winston did in fact assault the accuser sexually. Right now, simply having his DNA on her clothing and proving sex occurred is not helping them.

The young woman is said to have not gotten a rape test done the day after she reported the crime to the police (yes, there are tests for that). Interestingly enough, the local police department actually discouraged her to press charges last December by telling her that her life would be miserable if she decided to do so. This could be why the case against Winston just came to light recently. The issue I find with this is that Winston was not a star QB then. FSU did relatively well under another QB, and Winston was set to take over the following year but no one knew he’d be as good as he has been.

So I have a tough time understanding why a police department would discourage her. But it would make sense in a college town. However, why wait until right in the middle of the season when Florida State is on the road to a potential National Championship game? To me, there is a lot against Winston but not enough to charge him currently.

When you have a case like this, one with so many holes, trying to convict a person such as Winston is quite difficult. The accuser waits almost a year to press charges, and now the she is claiming she no longer wants to. But because the case is there, the D.A. could still charge him.

FSU still stands by Winston, in that they will not suspend or remove him from the team until formal charges are made.

For now, we know the two had relations at a party. But what is unsure is if it was consensual or not. If it was, then she might have brought this case up to bring down a person that maybe didn’t call her back the next day…who knows?

All we can do currently is speculate, but speculation does not equal a broken law. So until they have something more concrete, Winston will probably walk.

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